CoC : Oxiplegatz - Sidereal Journey : Review

Oxiplegatz - _Sidereal Journey_
(Season of Mist, 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (6 out of 10)

Alf Svensson, former member of the legendary At the Gates, presents us with another epic opera of sci-fi metal. As if this description wasn't strange enough, Svensson uses a very synthetic sounding drum machine and an unusual (and rather weak) guitar sound, together with plenty of strange rhythms, sounds and sequences. By the way, this whole album is just one song, over 40 minutes long and divided into 33 tracks that only seem to be there to allow the listener to browse through the album more easily than, for example, on Edge of Sanity's classic _Crimson_. The metallic components of _Sidereal Journey_, if regarded as such, are below average, despite the musical qualities often displayed throughout the album. It sounds too synthetic and bland for my taste, which strongly subtracts from those particular musical qualities; the appearance of plenty of less than interesting sections doesn't help, either. A pleasant sequence of tracks is often followed by an annoying one, and the fluctuation of the quality level is therefore quite high. Programming out some tracks obviously doesn't work well in this particular album. Sara Svensson's varied and well performed vocals are what I find most interesting here, and she fortunately appears in just over half the tracks. (You may remember her name from Dark Tranquillity's superb _The Mind's I_.) Overall, the album isn't bad, but it does have a considerable amount of annoying characteristics that overshadow many of its qualities.

(article published 16/1/1999)

CHATS
4/9/1997	D Schinzel	Oxiplegatz: Alf Articulates All

ALBUMS
11/18/1996	D Schinzel	9	Oxiplegatz - Worlds and Worlds